Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.

1942. Chrysler Corporation plant at Highland Park, Detroit. "Conversion. Here, in a former automobile plant, 40 mm. anti-aircraft gun barrels are machined and made ready for front-line duty. Since they must shoot fast-moving objects at great distances, they must be finished to the very finest of tolerances." Medium format negative by Alfred Palmer for the Office of War Information. View full size.

February 1937. Gee's Bend, Alabama. Descendants of former slaves of the Pettway Plantation. They are still living under primitive conditions there. Meat in sacks hangs from tree limbs to be cured. Medium format nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

1865. Charleston, South Carolina. Archibald McLeish's Vulcan Iron Works on Cumberland Street. Left half of glass-plate stereograph, from photographs of the Federal Navy and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, 1863-1865. View full size. Note the unusually elaborate sign, as well as what seem to be the giant wheels of an artillery carriage.

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.